


An Unexpected Habit

by Jillie_chan



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: 5 Times, Gen, Platonic Cuddling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-04-11
Packaged: 2018-03-17 19:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3541511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jillie_chan/pseuds/Jillie_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Coming from Ezra this was the last thing anyone ever expected.</p><p>Or rather:</p><p>Five times Ezra ended up cuddling with a crewmember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chopper: Snuggle Drunk

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I hold no legal right to the Star Wars Universe. I hold only the copyright to this fanfic.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are certain effects of having one too many...

The first time they discovered Ezra’s…habit, it had been on a mission that when asked was a success on a routine op that might have been forgotten if not for the novelty of Ezra being drunk. Even Kanan would _eventually_ find the humor in the incident, though not without a twinge of bitterness.

The plan had been the simple transportation of data disks the Empire didn’t like. Nothing at the level of highly classified intel (wouldn’t that have been nice) but still a bruising blow to the Empire’s ego. Seeing as the contact was someone Zeb knew on this planet he was sent to the local cantina to retrieve it. Ezra was sent to tag along for ‘experience’ which cause Zeb to grumble the entire time of ‘not being a babysitter to some karabast kid’.

So Zeb had ordered a local drink, which was sweeter than he would have liked, and left it and the kid behind as he caught up with his old friend. By the time Zeb came back to the table, having just shy of too much to drink himself, he saw that his forgotten drink was nowhere to be found and Ezra had an empty glass of something other than what Zeb had left behind pushed aside for the waitress while nursing another almost empty one in a similar glass of an off brown drink. Concerned Zeb pulled the glass out of the teen’s hands and finished it off. It was cold, sweet and surprisingly smooth but Zeb could tell from the after taste that it had a kick to it.

“Kid,” He asked, uncertain he wanted the answer, “how many of these have you had?”

Ezra stared at the Lasat unseeingly for far too long.

“That’s a _really_ hard question.” Ezra finally managed, laying his chin on his arm that was stretched out on the table.

Zeb’s ears drooped. “Kanan’s gonna kill me.”

* * *

 

“You were supposed to keep an eye on him!”

Zeb privately marveled as this was the first complete sentence that Kanan had managed after about a minute of sputtering incoherently.

“I was! He was in the corner!” Zeb defended, trying to ignore Ezra clinging to his left arm. “Karabast, how was I supposed to know that the drinking age on this rock was-” Zeb floundered as he still didn’t know what it was, “-as, as long as you can look over the blasted counter!?”

“Twelve!” Kanan shot back in an instant, “The drinking age is twelve! Why did you think I told you to keep an eye on him?”

“Because you’re an overprotective Di’kut?”

Ezra apparently still had the wherewithal to defend his teacher, leaned back as far as he could without letting go and wacked Zeb’s arm. “That’s not nice. You’re mean. You’re just…mean.”

“Eloquently put.” Kanan snarked before he buried his head in his hand. “Just take him to his bunk, lay him down, and let the kid sleep it off.”

“I don’t want to go to bed!” Ezra protested as Zeb pried the kid off his arm and tossed the teen over his shoulder.

“Too bad!” Zeb said, ignoring the whining as he carried the kid to their room, easily tossing the teen onto the top bunk before he turned to do his chores.

“Wait, where are you going?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Zeb said, almost out the door when he heard banging. Curious he turned around to see Ezra dangling precariously off the top bunk in attempt to climb down.

“No, no, _no_ , **no**.” Zeb said, as he shoved the wriggling kid back onto the bunk.

“I want to go with you!”

“Too bad!”

Ezra took the opportunity to latch onto the Lasat’s arm as Zeb tried to pull away from the bunk.

“Karabast, I have other things I have to do.”

“I can help!”

“You can’t even walk I had to carry you home!”

“Did not! You dragged me to the speeder!”

“Close enough, now STAY!”

* * *

 

Hera rolled her eyes stalking down the hall, wondering what was taking Zeb; she punched in her override code to their door swinging her head into the room. “Zeb, _What_ is taking you so long?”

Zeb twisted to look at her, his ears drooping in annoyance as Ezra fell from his bunk. “I’m leaving him there!” Zeb told her in a tone that said _I’m done, I quit!_

Ezra, suffering no worse for wear, sat up pointing at his roommate. “Zeb’s trying to leave me behind again!”

Hera pressed her fingers to her forehead, torn between exasperation and amusement. “How long has he been like this?”

“He’s always a jerk!” Ezra pouted.

“ _The whole blasted time,”_ Zeb growled.

“O~kay,” Hera quirked an eyebrow, helping the kid to his feet.

“Um…What are you doing?” Zeb asked.

“Come on, Ezra, you can sleep it off in the common area.”

“What?!” Zeb exclaimed while Ezra cheered.

“If he’s not going to stay put,” Hera reasoned, “then he should be somewhere we can keep an eye on him.”

Ezra staggered with Hera, clinging to her arm so tightly that he nearly tripped her. At the table, Sabine gave Hera a grin before the Mandalorian turned back to the holonews. Hera sat the kid down; turning to grab a blanket when Ezra laid his head on Sabine’s lap and _snuggled_ into a more comfortable position.

“Um, Hera?” Sabine asked, looking at Ezra and holding her hands up as if she didn’t want to encourage what Ezra was doing.

“Kanan, love,” Hera called without taking her eyes off the scene, “you’re Padawan is a snuggle drunk.”

“You’re not serious are you?” Kanan asked, not looking up from the wall he was working on.

Instead of a verbal answer Hera helped Sabine gently pry the teen off, helping him stagger over and sit down where Kanan was working. At once Ezra wrapped his arms around the Jedi, cuddling the older man. Kanan looked up at her quirked eyebrow with his hands raised in surprise, accidently allowing Ezra a more comfortable spot. From behind them they could hear Sabine giggling.

“Well this is awkward,” Kanan said gingerly laying a hand on the kid’s back. “Wait, doesn’t it normally take the second or third time to figure out what kind of drunk you are?”

Hera rocked back in surprise, a rueful smile on her face. “Well, Love, this might be the second or third time.”

“Wonderful,” Kanan rolled his eyes. “Well, he can’t stay here; I still have to finish this.”

“Don’t even think about it.” Sabine warned, standing to deter any ideas.

“Well, what else can we do?” Hera asked, “He won’t stay in his bunk and we’re all busy with maintenance.”

Sabine turned to them with a shrug. “Too bad we don’t have someone who can stay put while they do their share.”

Hera and Kanan’s eyes met.

* * *

 

Chopper was Whomping in annoyance waving a taser threateningly at the adults while Ezra held the droid close.

“Aw, come on, Chop, you’re the only one who can do this!” Kanan pleaded.

“And I promise I’ll be right here in the cockpit with you and you probably won’t even know he’s here,” Hera pledged.

Chopper protested, pointing at Ezra.

“Well, if he does throw up on you, he’ll be the one to clean it up,” Hera promised.

Chopper whirled in alarm.

Hera rolled her eyes. “Fine, _I’ll_ clean it up. _And_ if he does, Ezra will be your slave for a _whole_ week.”

Chopper hummed thoughtfully. He gestured to the kid again, buzzing another question.

“If you do this,” Kanan said, leaning against the copilot’s chair, “you have my permission to annoy the ever loving daylights out of him as he suffers through his hangover.”

“Kanan,” Hera warned, but Chopper was sold, cheerfully plugging back into the computer to get to work, ignoring the kid curled around him.

Hera gave the Jedi a look and he shrugged. “You did the same to me a couple of times.”

“I was trying to teach you a lesson.”

Kanan dropped a blanket over Ezra. “One that I am passing on. And I want him to remember it.”

Ezra looked up at Kanan. “Don’t worry, I’ll remember it later ‘cause I remember everything that’s going on right _now_.”

Kanan shot Hera a look, gesturing to the kid and she held up her hands in defeat. “Point taken, Love.”

* * *

 

Ezra groaned, rubbing his stiff neck as he pulled himself up and off of Chopper.  He rotated his neck, seeing the Droid wheeling his head to look at the Padawan. “Hey, Chopper.”

Chopper gave a loud WHOMVE, which Ezra guessed meant “MORNING!”

“Aw! That was my ear you’re shouting into!” Ezra protested standing and rubbing the offended ear. “You make a losey pillow, anyway.”

Chopper gave his robotic laugh, flashing lights at Ezra.

“Are you okay?” Ezra asked wondering what the droid was doing.

Chopper froze giving a sound that Ezra thought could mean “ _wa~it.”_ and then screamed at the top of his electronic lungs.

“Whoa!” Ezra took several steps back covering his ears.

The door to the cockpit opened allowing Hera to storm in with her hands over her ears. “For crying out loud, I told you I’d be right back!” Her eyes landed on Ezra. “Of course!”

“Hera, something’s wrong with Chopper!” Ezra shouted over the noise.

“Enough, Chop!” Hera shouted and the droid dropped his volume but kept grumbling something and gesturing to Ezra. “Whoa, whoa, slow down!”

“What’s wrong with him?” Ezra demanded, failing to keep panic from his voice. “Can we fix him?”

Chopper raised his volume again but not enough to hurt anyone’s ears, just to get their attention. Hera blinked in surprise looking at Ezra. “Are you feeling okay?”

Ezra gestured to his chest. “Why are you asking me when _Chopper_ is the one having a fit?”

Hera studied him. “No sensitivity to light, no headache, you’re not overly tired?”

“I’m overly confused,” Ezra admitted.

“Soooo, you’re _not_ hung-over?”

Ezra stared at her when it clicked and he rolled his eyes. “Please, I may not get drunk often but I _can_ hold my liquor.”

Chopper rolled out of the cockpit in frustration, yelling at the top of his electronic lungs. Ezra chuckled as the droid left. “Guess I dodged that firing squad.”

“Not quite.” Hera corrected handing him a chore list that was longer than his normal one.

“Can I at least use the ‘fresher first?”

She pinned him with a look.

“Is that a ‘no’?”

Hera looked at the ground, shaking her head with an exasperated smile. Before she could say anything Kanan came in obviously being herded by Chopper.

“Gah, Chopper, I’ve got things to do!” Kanan looked over at Ezra and gave a mischievous smile. “HEY, KID, HOW YOU FEELING?”

Ezra shrugged. “I’M GOOD. YOU?”

Kanan balked. “Wh-? You’re not hung-over?”

Ezra shook his head. “No.”

Chopper groaned, waving his arms in annoyance and zapped Ezra as he wheeled out of the room.

“What’s up with him? He’s acting like he got gypped,” Ezra said.

He noticed Kanan and Hera’s eyes meet and Hera went deliberately back to her seat.

“Wait…did you guys tell him he could torture me if I had a hangover?”

“No~o,” Kanan denied with a sarcastic eye roll.

“Only _Kanan_ said he could,” Hera corrected, ignoring the mock betrayed look Kanan shot her.

“Why would you do that?” Ezra asked, real hurt in his voice.

“Why did you think it was a good idea to get drunk?” Kanan retorted.

“I only had a few drinks! I didn’t set out to _get_ drunk,” Ezra defended.

“We don’t think you did,” Hera soothed, “we’re just worried-”

“-and upset,” Kanan added.

“-and upset that you didn’t think it through. You were on a planet that you don’t know and had too much to drink. What would you have done if something happened to Zeb?”

“And before you ask,” Kanan said, “he’s in trouble too.”

Ezra sighed. “You’re right. I guess I should have realized that they were stronger than I thought they would be. I mean I mainly had something called a _Jedi Mind Trick_.”

Ezra noticed that Hera tried not to laugh when Kanan buried his face in his hand.


	2. Hera: Hot Water Bottle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I hold no legal right to Star Wars, I hold only the copyright to this fanfic.

The second time that Ezra acted on his habit it was only clear in retrospect. Then again it was forgivable do to the circumstances.

Hera had decided that it would be a good idea to give Ezra a few flying lessons, taking him along on a scouting mission, promising he could fly the _Phantom_ after the mission. However it turns out that the Empire was watching the skies around the target a little closer than they expected. And the TIE pilots were getting better at aiming through the clouds.

* * *

Ezra did his best to brace himself as the _Phantom_ jerked from the blast. The shuttle dropped leaving him weightless for a few seconds and Ezra staggered over to the computer panel. “That last shot hit our engines, we’re losing power!”

“Yeah, I can see that!” Hera snapped. “Strap in! Come on, just a little longer…”

“I’m in!”

She pulled up, the _Phantom_ climbing ahead of the TIEs into a patch of dense clouds and then she dove shooting the lead TIE causing debris to rain onto other four. One of the TIE pilots panicked, slamming his ship into his wingman causing both of them to plummet out of the sky.

Ezra smirked. “Nice shot.”

Hera returned the smirk until she went to turn. She paled as she yanked on the yoke harder. “Brace yourself! We’re either going to have a rough landing or a gentle crash!”

“Is there a difference?” Ezra asked, gripping the edge of his seat.

Hera didn’t answer, too focused on pulling the _Phantom_ out of its dive, the lack of power and sluggish steering apparently making the sleepwalk maneuver  into a challenge.

“Kanan,” she called back to him, “I need you to grab the front and help me level her out.”

“O-okay,” Ezra closed his eyes, reaching outside the shuttle, pushing the nose of the ship causing the _Phantom_ to level out. Hera stopped helping lift the nose, instead she put most of the power into slowing down. The restraints were the only reason that the two weren’t sent flying when the _Phantom_ slammed into the ground. Ezra cried out in surprise, his focus snapped and his head hit the wall as the boat slid to a stop.

“Ezra, shut everything down!”

Ezra blinked spots out of eyes. “I-right.” He tried to stand but the restraints held him and he fumbled with the clasp. Hera was bouncing around the cockpit with a speed that was never good to see and Ezra managed to stagger over to the wall shutting the computer down. The _Phantom_ gave one last whine then silence filled the cabin. Hera ducked low looking up at the sky to see the Imps circling their crashed ship. Ezra grabbed the back of the pilot chair seeing them flying low.

He closed in his eyes willing the TIEs’ pilots to overlook them, throwing as much pull into the Force as he could. “ _We’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead, we’re dead_.” He couldn’t tell if it was working, he thought it was but he and Kanan had never gone over this trick.

“Ezra, they’re gone,” Hera said, laying a hand on his shoulder.

He half collapsed against the chair, breathing heavily.

“You did a good job.”

He gave her a shaky smile. “Thanks, but I don’t think I completely fooled them.”

“Well then, let’s make sure we’re not here when they come back.” Hera said, sitting in the pilot chair flipping the switches to start the _Phantom_ back up. There was a high pitched whine with a few clanks but the shuttle stayed where it lay.

“That…didn’t sound good.” Ezra ventured.

Hera flipped switches, checking the computers. “No, no, no, no, no, no.”

“What’s wrong?”

“When we shut down the _Phantom_ the engines completely gave out.”

“Can’t we fix it?”

“Yes, but without a diagnosis we don’t even know what’s wrong. And we can’t run one without power; from either our own engines or the _Ghost’s_.”

“Can’t we reroute the axillary power to run one?”

Hera sighed. “It would take some work. And we might have to go outside.”

Ezra nodded. “On it.”

Hera grabbed his arm. “Wait.”

She ducked her head to lookout the windshield and Ezra followed her line of sight, the world beyond was glazed making the colors seem brighter somehow, the branches of the nearby evergreens bowed down with a thick layers of ice. The windshield was flecked with drops of water that were giving way to the storm that had provide the cloud cover they’d been using to avoid the TIEs.

She shook her head, her lekku swinging. “We go out there now we’ll freeze to death before long.”

“Then I won’t stay out there long,” Ezra reasoned heading back to the shuttle but Hera held on and stood.

“Ezra, I’m serious.”

“So am I,” She gave him a flat look, “Hera, I can do this!”

“I’m not saying you can’t,” Hera insisted.

“Then what are you saying?”

Hera straightened. “I’m saying that I don’t want anything to happen to you and-”

Ezra rolled his eyes, “Hera-”

She held up a hand tilting her head to the side and then Ezra noticed what sounded like an avalanche of boulders hitting the metal roof echoing endlessly in the small room. Hera let go of his arm going back to the window and Ezra joined her. Small pieces of ice about the size of Chopper’s neck ball bearings slammed against the hull. Ezra could only think of one thing that had anything to do with hail.

“Hera, does this part of the planet get tornados?”

She shook her head again. “No, it’s too cold here.”

Ezra sighed in relief.

“Speaking of which, we have a problem,” Hera gave him a look, “as trying to tell you, we’ve had a full burnout. Until we get the engines back it’s going to get pretty cold in here.”

“Why?” Ezra crossed his arms and hunched over. “The _Phantom_ can handle the cold depths of space; why can’t it handle a little ice?”

“Ezra…Space isn’t cold.”

“It’s not?”

At his confusion Hera gave him a bemused look. “You know the warning signs of a tornado but not that space isn’t cold?”

“Tornados happen from time to time on Lothal, need to know what to look out for. Besides, I thought that we’d freeze if the engines died in space?”

“We would,” Hera stood, going to one of the overhead bins. “But that’s because the _Ghost,_ and by extension the _Phantom_ , are designed to vent as much heat as possible. We’d all die from heat exhaustion if they didn’t.”

She handed him a bright orange blanket.

“Why?”

“It has to do with heat transference. However, let’s focus on getting some power to call the _Ghost_ for now,” Hera frowned. “Where is it?”

“Where’s what?”

“I have two emergency blankets that I keep in the _Phantom_ but I can’t find the other one.”

“…Is it a blue yarn one with a woven pattern?”

“Yes, how do y-” Hera slowly turned around her eyes narrowed, “Where is it?”

Ezra fidgeted running a hand through his hair. “…on my bunk.”

“ _Ezra Bridger!”_

“I didn’t know it was for emergencies!”

“For the record,” Hera gestured around the shuttle, “everything on the _Phantom_ is for emergencies _only_!”

“Okay! I’m sorry!” He ran his hand through his hair again flinching when he brushed against the sore spot on his head.

Hera noticed his flinch and pounced on it. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing!” He protested, trying to pull away when Hera ran her hand through his hair looking for bumps. He hissed when her fingers gently ran over the goose egg.

“What happened?” She demanded, reaching into her pockets for her pen light, shining it in the Padawan’s eyes.

“Agh! Hera!” Ezra moaned jerking his head to the side, but Hera held him still. “It’s nothing! I bumped my head when we crashed.”

“Ezra, I will decide if this is a concussion or nothing,” Hera said with a tone that brokered no argument.

The Padawan huffed in annoyance as Hera slowly shined the light in one eye and then the other, repeating the process twice before she was satisfied. “Alright other than the bumped on your head you’re fine.”

“ _Told_ you it was nothing!” Ezra said gratefully pulling away, his hand resting on the bump.

Hera pulled the blanket out of his arm and draped it around his shoulders. “That’s what Kanan said to me once after a mission went south and we were running from Storm Troopers. I asked him if we should go right or left and he said ‘green’.”

“Was there-?”

“Nope,” Hera said with a playful smile. She handed him some of the tools from the overhead compartment. “Now, let’s call for help.”

* * *

Hera’s hands were shaking from the cold making rewiring hard; it was nothing compared to how painful the tips her lekku were.

“I think,” Ezra called from the repair duct, he was lying on his back with the orange blanket draped over his chest and tossed over his legs, “that should do it.”

Hera poked her head into the hole. “Think?”

Ezra wiggled out of the repair duct taking her offered hand and he re-draped the blanket over his shoulders. “I can’t tell without power.”

“I’m not ready to start the engines yet.” Hera sighed, blowing on the tips of her lekku.

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Yeah, check to see if we have batteries, any kind. Worse comes to worse we can use them to power the radio.”

Hera went back to the console double checking the jury-rigged set up to make sure the power would reach the rest of the ship. She turned the engine over and half the consoles lit up but that it was it. Hera sighed; she would really like some kind of heat from the engines even if they couldn’t get airborne but for now a working comm was the priority. It was also _supposed_ to be working now…

“Uh, Hera,” she ‘hmmed’ to let him know she was listening, “This isn’t what you wanted but here.”

Hera turned and Ezra tossed her a red and white thing. She turned it over and realized that it was that horrible hat that Kanan had picked up somewhere around Serenno. It was triangular shaped with white around the brim and, for no discernable reason to her, a white puff ball on the tip. She thought it had looked ridiculous and had tossed it in the _Phantom_ promptly forgotten about it.

Despite the hat’s long tail it wasn’t long enough to reach her head obviously not made for Twi’leks but right now she wasn’t going to be choosy. She slipped her Lekku in and pulled the hat up as far as it could, hoping it would stay for as long as it could. Already her Lekku felt warmer or at least she thought they did.

“I found some of Chopper’s spare batteries,” Ezra said, placing them on the console next to her.

“These are perfect,” Hera smiled.

“Isn’t Chopper going to mad if we drain his battery?”

“We won’t use them if we don’t have to. If we do I’ll make it up to him,” Hera reasoned, pulling the hat back up. Suddenly the blanket was draped over her. “Ezra-”

“Look, Kanan will kill me if anything happens to you,” Ezra defended, hunched over with his arms crossed.

“Uh-huh, well Kanan won’t be happy with me if anything happens to _you_.”

“Yeah, but he won’t make _your_ life miserable.”

Hera swung the blanket back around his shivering shoulders with a rueful smile. “You’d be surprised. He can be quite the pain in the ass sometimes.”

“Yeah but he’d probably be more help right now.” Ezra rested his head on her shoulder. She frowned, Ezra felt a lot warmer than normal and she couldn’t tell if he had a fever or a sign of how cold she was.

“Actually, he’d be about the same. Maybe a little less, he’d still be looking for the other blanket,” she teased.

Ezra shifted, probably in guilt. “Yeah, but you’d rather have him here.”

Hera grabbed his shoulders. “What makes you say that?”

“When we were crashing, you called me Kanan.”

Hera frowned as she tried to remember what Ezra was referring to. “You mean when I asked you to help the level the nose? Ezra, that was more force of habit, don’t take it personally.”

Ezra shrugged under hands. “Okay.”

She gave him a little shake. “Believe me Ezra, when you’ve worked with someone as long as Kanan and I have, you get used to relying on them.”

“Yeah, it was the same with Bossk and me back in the day. Don’t worry, I get it, you trust Kanan a lot.”

“Bossk?” She asked tilting her head to the side and then sighed in annoyance as the hat slipped down again.

“Yeah, we used to hang out for a couple of years and then he got nabbed when the Empire passed the law.” Ezra looked around her at the mess of wires, “Do you want me to look at that?”

“Careful they’re supposed to be live.” She stepped aside as she pulled the hat back up. “Which law? I mean the Empire passes some many…”

Ezra studied the dismantled console. “‘All unproductive citizens will be placed into the Empire’s care for housing and job training.’ They championed it as a way to get rid of the homeless.” He moved some of the wires and Hera pounced on it as she saw a few connections that needed work.

“How long ago was that?”

“‘Bout a year before I met you guys.”

“Ever find out what happened to him?” Hera asked, grabbing his hand and raising it where she needed him to hold the tangle of wire up to give her room to work.

“No, but it was good motivation to get off the streets and move into my tower.”

Hera looked at him out of the corner of her eye trying to figure out what to say when the radio crackled. “-st _t~_ Pha*om.”

“ _Phantom_ here!” Hera cried. Ezra stood on his toes holding the wires as high as he could as if it would help boost the signal.

“ _Wh~w, you wer- sta*ting to w-rry us, ~_ atom _.”_ Sabine admitted her relief evident through the static.

“Keep worrying, we’ve lost power and we think our ‘friends’ might be on their way back.” Hera said, grabbing Ezra’s elbow as he almost over balanced. “Transmitting our last known coordinates.”

“ _Un~erst*od,”_ There was a burst of static and Sabine was replaced with Kanan. “ _S~ector Tw* keep t-e_ Phant~ _dar-. We’*l be th*re sho~tly.”_

Hera readjusted the hat again, sighing in frustration. “Understood, _Ghost._ _Phantom_ out.”

Ezra gratefully dropped the bundle of wires, staggering back as he regained his balance. Hera shut the power off with a sigh, pulled the hat back up and crossed her arms, rubbing them to get some warmth back into her fingers. She could feel Ezra staring at her. “If you even think about giving me the blanket, then I will make fighting the Inquisitor look like a friendly sparing match.”

“Fine, I won’t _give_ you the blanket.”

The corners of the blanket were tossed over her shoulders. Before she could yell at him, he reached around her pulling the blanket around them as she could feel him hugging her from behind him. “That’s cheating.”

“I like to think of it as ‘creative rule-breaking’.”

“Alright, Mr. ‘creative rule-breaker’, come on.” She led him to the seats pulling two of them down. It took a little bit of maneuvering to get them both settled and covered by the blanket.

If Hera was with Kanan it would’ve been a non-issue given everything they’d gone through together, maybe a little teasing between the two.  She was sure that if it was Zeb or even Sabine would’ve tried to force the blanket on her and that it would take nearly an order to get them to share the blanket with her. But with Ezra she had figured that he’d be too concerned with looking strong so it was a relief that Ezra took no coaxing to, for lack of a better word, cuddle with her.

That didn’t mean that Ezra was fully comfortable with it judging by his blush. “M-L-let me know if this gets awkward.” Ezra told her, trying to make eye contact but couldn’t quite do so.

“Sorry, but if makes you feel any better: you do make a very good hot water bottle.” Hera teased, pulling the teen closer. She did feel warmer finally.

Ezra shrugged. “I’m good for more than just fitting in air ducts.”

“That you are.”

“So…How did you and Kanan met?” Ezra asked, trying to ease the tension.

Hera rested her chin on his head. “Oh, that one needs both of us here to tell that story.”

“Why?”

“Because what started out for me as a quick recon mission with the hopes to pick up some crew turned into race to stop a murderous cyborg from blowing up a moon.”

Ezra looked like he was trying to process it. “Why was he trying to blow up a moon? Wait, is that even possible?”

“Uh-huh. Now you see why we need Kanan for this story. Not to mention he’ll pout if I told it without him.” Hera gave the kid a smile. “What about you? Any good stories?”

“A few,” Ezra shot her a smile. “After I had moved into my tower I noticed a dog fight happening right over my head and there was this TIE that was shot down. It crashed right in front of me so I hurry over to see if there’s anything worth salvaging. Turns out the pilot survived the crash…”

* * *

The two were laughing as Hera finished telling Ezra about one of the times (“There was more than _one?_ ”) that Zeb had gotten into a brawl with Imperials after missing a rendezvous with Kanan when there was a loud banging that came from the hatch. Hera stood cautiously pulling out her blaster and Ezra knelt to the ground his slingshot primed the blanket abandoned on the seats.

The doors were forced open and the two lined up their shots. “Don’t shoot, it’s us!”

Hera sighed in relief, rolling her head and the hat fell to the ground and she bent over to pick it up. “Kanan, Love, that’s a good way to get yourself shot!”

“What do you want: a secret knock?” Kanan snarked as he and Zeb climbed through the half opened door into the cab. “And you did not mention the ice!”

With the door opened the wind rushed into the cab making it even colder though Kanan was fine wearing a long brown coat that looked a little too wide in the shoulders while Zeb was wearing a coat and a pair of specialized boots. Ezra grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around Hera only to have her pull him close and encase him in the blanket’s warmth too. “We could barely hear you, Love. Getting you here faster was more important.”

Kanan walked over to the two the brown coat bellowing slightly. “Well if I knew about this weather I would have told you to keep the heat on.” The Jedi laid a warm hand on both of their faces and Ezra could see Zeb snickering behind Kanan. “You are both freezing.”

“Wouldn’t have mattered anyway we had a burnout.” Hera shrugged with her arms still around Ezra. “Not for lack of trying to get it restarted.”

“Uh-huh and what happened to the other blanket?” Kanan asked, shrugging out of the brown coat and giving it to Hera.

“It’s on my bunk.” Ezra explained with a sheepish smile as he and Hera untangled themselves and she put on the coat while he wrapped the blanket tightly around himself.

“What?!” Kanan yelled and Ezra just shrugged with his ‘I’m in trouble’ smile.

“So _that’s_ where that came from,” Zeb noted lightly.

“I already yelled at him,” Hera informed Kanan.

“Okay,” Kanan placed his face in his hand, running it from his eyes to his chin before gesturing at them, “Alright, let’s get you both on board and warmed up.”

“I’ll put it back,” Ezra promised.

Hera laid a hand on his shoulder. “You can keep it but the next time we’re in town get a replacement for the _Phantom_.”

Ezra nodded. “While I’m at I’ll get you a better hat.”

“That would be greatly appreciated,” Hera agreed as she threw the ill-fitting thing next to the tools.

“Enough, everyone on the _Ghost_ ,” Kanan snapped, already shivering.

The hail had been replaced with rain that froze almost as soon as it hit anything solid and even though Kanan had parked as close to the _Phantom_ as he could without crushing the shuttle it was still a miserable walk home.

As they shook the icy water off of themselves Zeb shoved Ezra’s shoulder. “Too bad you and Sabine weren’t stuck in there together. Could have pulled the whole ‘share-the-blanket’ thing with her.”

Hera and Kanan shared amused glances at that while Ezra looked like he was really thinking about it. “Do you really think that would have worked?”

Zeb rolled his eyes with a sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I wasn't expecting this chapter to be so long but Hera is not one to just sit idly by.


	3. Sabine: Security Cling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes the only thing you can do is be there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to the Star Wars Universe. I hold only the copyright to this Fanfic.

The next time they had to deal with a clingy Ezra had them cursing. There had always been an outstanding bounty on Jedi and a new one on the _Ghost_ crew with updated intel that Kanan and his Padawan were Force sensitives. It was a blessing really that most of their contacts already knew about their wanted status, sometimes thinking it a bonus. No need to get someone like Vizago looking at the two like one of his blasters. However it really shouldn't have been a surprise that a couple of bounty hunters managed to get the drop on them.

* * *

 

Ezra would hand it to these guys, they were good. The only reason why they hadn’t killed the four was because Ezra and Kanan had felt the threat just before the trap sprung. The two had acted on instinct, Kanan grabbing Zeb and Ezra tackling Sabine right when the blaster fire started.

If this wasn’t a life or death situation then Ezra would have been flirting hard core with Sabine. So he just settled with flirting with her.

“Sooo, I was thinking, after were done with this we could do something.” He shot a guy with his slingshot but the man shrugged it off.

Sabine tilted her head towards him, though he couldn’t tell what she was thinking through her helmet. “What kind of ‘something’.”

“Well I have this,” Ezra hesitated and shot a glance at Kanan, “ _thing_ that could use your hand.”

Sabine gave a disgusted sound that was extra static-y through her helmet. “Kid, that is gross.”

“What? Wh-why is it gross?”

“Because it _is_!” Sabine snapped hitting the guy that Ezra had shot and this time he stayed down.

“But you do it all the time!”

“No, I do NO-wait, what are you talking about?”

“Painting, what are _you_ talking about?”

“Not painting.”

 “Knock it off you two!” Kanan snapped, “Head back to the ship. We’ll meet you there!”

“Got it,” Sabine nodded and Ezra threw his mentor a salute.

Zeb leapt out from behind cover, firing wildly to give Sabine and Ezra time to escape. Ezra darted over to the wall and pried the cover off a vent, allowing Sabine to go in first. He followed and found that he didn’t have enough space to turn around so he used the Force to close the hatch behind him.

“Ugh, another air vent,” Sabine moaned. “It’s gonna take me forever to clean my armor.”

The vent wasn’t as cramped as some Ezra had been in but Sabine was right, this one hadn’t had a cleaning bot in it for a while. “So, Sabine, about that thing I was telling you about. You in?”

“Depends, what kind of _thing_?”

“It’s-wait is your comm off?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

Sabine stopped her shuffle-crawl for a second. “Yes.”

“Okay, you remember that TIE that Zeb and I stole awhile back?”

“You mean the one you crashed?”

“You know, ‘crashed’ can be misleading…”

Sabine stopped moving again. “You two didn’t crash it at all did you?”

Ezra smiled. “Nope.”

“Kanan’s gonna kill you when he finds out.”

“ _If_ he finds out.”

Sabine stopped moving.

“…You’re not going to tell him are you?”

“Uh, kid-”

Ezra felt the metal shift under him and he had just enough time to think ‘ _Oh, that’s not goo-’_ before he and Sabine were falling.

He slammed into the ground and he laid dazed for a moment. He felt like he had done a belly flop into the daracrete (which is basically what he had done) and he rolled over with a groan. Blinking dry wall dust out of his eyes he noticed a human thug, much like the ones he’d been fighting upstairs, with body armor and a mean looking blaster crouched next to him looking bewildered. It looked like this guy had been taking cover in preparation for a firefight, against who Ezra couldn’t tel-

Oh, Karabast, yes he _could_.

Ezra tried to stand, ignoring all of his bruises and immense pain but the guy recovered from his shock and jumped on Ezra’s supine form pinning the teen to the ground, shoving the mean looking blaster to the bottom of Ezra’s chin.

“Get off of him,” Sabine demanded, pointing her own blaster at the guy’s head.

Ezra tilted his head back looking at her upside down. She hadn’t stood yet, having apparently rolled over and sat up but she was slowly gathering her legs under her. That’s when Ezra noticed the other guy, a Quidultii, sneaking up behind her. “Sabine!”

She turned her head to look behind her but there was no way she could do anything. Before he could really think about it, Ezra reached out with the Force shoving the sneak attacker to the ground. Ezra’s vision turned an odd mix of blue and yellow for a few seconds and the side of his face hurt. As he blinked spots out of his vision he was yanked to his feet, staggering from the blow. The gun was now pointed at the base of his skull right behind his ear.

“Unless you want to see the brat without a head drop ‘em.”

Sabine stared at the guy holding Ezra for a moment, as though she was weighing his threat. She then held up her hands allowing the Mr. Sneak-attacker-Quidultii to grab her guns.

“And you,” the guy holding the gun to Ezra’s head said, “any Jedi tricks and she’ll get a couple of new holes.”

“What makes you think I know any Jedi tricks?” Ezra demanded with indignity.

“W-t? You _just_ threw him across the room.”

“Trigger, what makes you think that was me and not her?”

The newly minted Trigger scoffed. “Please, says right on your wanted notices that you’re a Jedi.”

“Oh…wait we have wanted notices?” Ezra asked, trying to turn his head only to have the blaster pushed into his skull harder.

“Question, are they holos or artist renderings?” Sabine asked as Mr. Sneaky cuffed her hands behind her back with two of his hands, keeping a gun pointed at her side with his lower right hand.

“Does it matter?” Trigger asked.

“ _Of course_ it matters! I want to make sure we don’t have some hack drawing us!”

“Well, Spector Five, you can draw my wanted poster _anytime_ ,” Ezra assured her with a suave smile.

Mr. Sneaky gave the two an incredulous look. “I think you both have more important things to worry about.”

Ezra looked straight at where Sabine’s eyes were behind her helmet and she gave him a tiny nod.

“ _Yes, Specter One_ ,” they intoned together.

Mr. Sneaky stared at Trigger over Ezra’s head. “We’ve captured you for the bounty and neither of you two are taking it seriously.”

“Oh please, you’re making it sound like we’ve never been held at blaster point before,” Ezra rolled his eyes.

“Or captured by two thugs. Also are you guys using modified E-11s?” Sabine asked, twisting over to look at the blaster in a pair of Mr. Sneaky’s hands his other hands pointing her own blasters at her.

“He is, Trigger’s not,” Ezra answered for their captors. “Trigger’s looks custom.”

“Shame that E-11s have no accuracy. Still points for camping out at the bottom of the stairs could gotten quite the drop on us if we hadn’t fallen through the ceiling.”

“Guess you could say we _got the drop on them._ ”

Sabine shook her head. “That was bad, Spector Six.”

Mr. Sneaky’s eyes widen in alarm, grabbing Sabine’s arm and forcibly yanking her helmet off. It was too small for the Quidultii’s head so he held it up to whatever passed for his ear listening to it like a seashell. Mr. Sneaky shook his head at Trigger and Trigger started frisking Ezra finding the activated comm in his hand and throwing it to the ground.

“For this she gets a hole!” Trigger snarled and Mr. Sneaky shifted the blasters.

“Hey! You only said if I pulled a Jedi trick!” Ezra exclaimed in panic.

“A trick is a trick,” Trigger said and Mr. Sneaky nodded.

“NO!” Ezra cried with no time to focus and shoved with the Force knocking everything over.

Trigger’s blaster went off adding a burn to the ruined ceiling. Ezra didn’t waste anything longer than a quick thought of ‘ _that was close_ ’ and even that was done as he ran over to help Sabine to her feet.

“Untie me!” She demanded.

Ezra barely got his hands around her wrists when he his arms were pinned and he was lifted off the ground by a pair of red arms. Something sharp was jammed into his thigh and Ezra cried out in pained surprise.

Trigger stared at the sight. “I thought Golr-”

“I’ve been thrown _twice_ , we need it!” Mr. Sneaky snapped, cuffing Ezra’s hands behind him.

Ezra’s eyes frantically scanned for anything he could use to get them out of this mess but nothing jumped out at the Padawan. Mr. Sneaky dropped Ezra on his feet and he and Trigger dragged Sabine and him out of the warehouse.

Ezra turned his attention to his bond with Kanan. They’d never been able to talk across it but maybe he could send the Jedi images to help with the rescue. Kanan sent a wave of comfort tinted with worry over the bond but there was hitch, like a hiccup. Ezra shrugged it off looking around for a landmark to send to Kanan.

He spotted a building with a faded mural advertising some kind of soda and he focused on it, trying to remember as many details as he could and send it to the Jedi. Though when he reached out Kanan felt…weaker. Ezra swallowed a wave of fear.

A lot weaker.

He shook his head trying to clear whatever was interfering with their bond so he could send the memory. Kanan reached back with even more worry, concern and a twinge of fear. Ezra closed his eyes forgetting the mural as he tried to feel where his teacher was only to barely feel anything. The Padawan turned all his attention inward trying to get anything clear from their bond besides that Kanan was alive, weak, and afraid.

Something slipped.

Ezra couldn’t feel anything.

“No, no, please, no,” Ezra whispered, fumbling for any contact with Kanan.

Nothing.

Ezra screamed.

* * *

 

Sabine watched Ezra with concern as their captors herded them into a waiting transport. After being injected with whatever the Quidultii had on him, the kid had seemed fine, Ezra had still been alert and focused looking for ways to escape. Then she saw something in the kid shift and Ezra paled and started staggering.

Their captors were not talking to each other judging by the glares the human shot the Quidultii, which provided Sabine no clues as to where they were going. She could only watch as Ezra succumbed to the drug’s effects, losing his ability to walk straight before passing out. At least she hoped that he was only passed out.

It was a fairly quick drive to the bounty hunters’ ship, as she was lead inside she saw another transport arrive, letting out the thugs that forced her and Ezra to try to retreat. A Klatooinian sauntered over and joined them on the way to the holding cells as the Quidultii carried Ezra like a rag doll. “How did it go?”

“We only nabbed two of them and this Bishwag used the ‘precaution’!”

The Klatooninian rounded on the Quidulitii with a snarl. “Why?”

“Golrin, the brat tossed _me_ twice! What do you think he’d do to us if I hadn’t?”

The Klatooinian, Golrin, looked annoyed at the claim. When the group stopped he grabbed Ezra’s chin studying the kid’s pale face. “How long ago did you use it?”

The thugs stared at each other trying to figure it out without saying anything and Sabine rolled her eyes. She had done some calculations on the trip over based on the speed and distance so she answered. “About fifteen minutes ago.”

Golrin looked impressed at her and smiled about to say something when Ezra screamed. Everyone jumped and Golrin gave a relieved chuckle. “Sounds like fifteen minutes alright.”

Golrin jerked his chin and the two Specters were shoved into a room that was barely bigger than the storage closet on the _Ghost_. Sabine dropped, rolled backwards and swung her legs through her arms so her hands were in front of her. Ezra was still lying where he was tossed though he had stopped screaming and started crying softly.

“Kid, talk to me!” Sabine pleaded, turning Ezra so he was lying on his side. “What’s wrong?”

“I-I can’t feel Kanan. I-he-he’s gone,” Ezra sobbed.

Sabine felt her blood run cold. “Are you sure?”

Ezra’s eyes were screwed shut and he nodded into the durasteel floor. Sabine sat back fighting her own tears at their friend’s death and if Kanan was dead did that mean Zeb was too? She took a deep breath and shoved her grief aside; they had to get out of this now before the ship took off. “Ez-Spector Six, do you have anything to pick the hand cuffs with?”

Ezra took a deep breath, pushing himself into a sitting position, his knees as close to his chest as he could get them. “In-in my boot.”

Sabine reached into Ezra’s white boot holster and pulled out his multi-tool, picking the handcuffs with frustrating inexperience. As soon as his hands were free he wrapped his arms around his knees, holding himself tightly.

“Okay, it’s my turn.” She knelt down in front of him, clumsily pushed the multi-tool into his hand and Ezra stared at it like he wasn’t sure what to do with it. “C’mon kid, pick the lock.”

Ezra didn’t move.

“Kid, don’t do this to me,” Sabine hissed wrapping her cuffed hands around his wrist. He could grieve when they were back on the _Ghost._ Ezra jolted like she had startled him out of sleep.

“Sabine?”

She sighed, _great_ , if the bounty hunters had this room bugged than they had her name for sure. Sabine nearly missed Ezra’s hesitant hand reaching for her and she pulled away slightly. Ezra gently touched shoulder and flinched before firmly grasping her arm and pulling her close. “You’re real?”

Sabine’s eyes widen in alarm, she leaned back from him to look at his eyes. They were dilated to the point that the blue was almost hard to spot. He blinked, looked down at her hands and picked her handcuffs, resting his head on her shoulder as he did so.

“E-kid, what did you mean by that?” Sabine asked a little jealous how quickly Ezra freed her despite being drugged.

Ezra kept his head on her shoulder. “It’s just nothing…” Ezra paused as though he was looking for the right word, “ _feels_ real.”

“How?” Sabine asked. Ezra didn’t answer, wrapping his hands around her wrist and she wrapped her free hand around his in return, feeling his pulse. “How does it not feel real?”

“Everything’s just,” Ezra gave a frustrated noise, “it doesn’t feel _right_. Everything’s too flat, too dark, too heavy, too…wrong.”

Sabine nodded adding it to the list of symptoms so she could reverse engineer and figure out what they had given the kid. Something that could cause loss of balance, dilated eyes, delusions, rapid pulse and unconsciousness; Sabine couldn’t help him from a bounty hunters’ hold though. She rocked back standing easily only to be stopped when she realized Ezra hadn’t let go.

“Please don’t go,” Ezra pleaded in earnest.

“I’m not going anywhere without you,” Sabine promised, gently prying his hand off. Ezra stared at her for a moment before curling up with his arms around his knees and his head resting on them.

Sabine pulled out her comm, thankful that the thugs had only checked her helmet for one and not her belt, “Spector Five to _Ghost_.”

There was a hiss of static making Sabine wonder if anything made it through, she kept it on and broadcasting all the same, shoving aside the bitterness that Kanan couldn’t show to save them.

She examined the room looking for any weakness, pushing down the wave of homesickness as it reminded her of the _Ghost’s_ storage unit. If this was truly like the _Ghost’s_ storage unit then… Sabine looked at the wall. There it was, a life support grate but this one was wielded shut, either Ezra’s reputation was that well known or some other bounty had tried that trick. There wasn’t a way to control the room’s lone light and the lock was on the other side of the door. She checked her wrist computer to see if she could slice the lock and found she had just enough signal to do so and set the program to work.

Ezra gave a small noise prompting Sabine to look at him; the kid was rocking in distress clawing at himself. Sabine didn’t realize she had moved until she was dragging his hands away, absently thankful that the kid’s nails were too short to do any real damage. Ezra tried to pull his hands free and she held them tight to her chest. “Kid, stop! Talk to me!”

Ezra stilled, panting and staring at her as though she had popped up from out of nowhere. “Sabine?”

“Yeah, kid,” Sabine sighed in relief as Ezra leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder again. “What happened?”

“I…I tried to reach you but…I’m-I’m trapped.”

“I know, Spector Six, I’m trying to get us out of here.”

“I couldn’t breathe,” Ezra confessed.

Sabine swallowed, adding panic attacks to her list. “How do you feel?”

“Hollow. Cut off.” Ezra answered in an instant. “Alone.”

Sabine shifted her weight to the side so she was sitting next to Ezra instead of kneeling in front of him. Ezra let her, wrapping his arms around her waist and using her shoulder as a pillow making her feel like a stuffed toy from a funfair.

Sabine looked down at the wrist computer checking to its halting progress and noticed that the bounty hunters hadn’t taken Ezra’s slingshot, apparently focused solely on her blasters. She slipped the whole thing off his wrist and set it next to her, it was better than nothing. She tried not to check her wrist computer again knowing that the progress bar was going to be a frustrating crawl.

Ezra was content to just sit with his arms around her though it was alarming how subdued he was. She sighed, resting her check against Ezra’s forehead, absently adding clammy skin to the growing list. Sabine wouldn’t ever tell it to the kid but right now she wished he was flirting with her in his clumsy way. At least then he would be talking.

Finally, after what seemed like a small eternity, the door beeped and Sabine sighed in relief, checking her program out of habit only to see that it was only 42% complete. She stiffened as she realized that someone was coming in; she grabbed Ezra’s slingshot and pulling back a shot pointing it at the door. It slid open and she let the shot loose barely missing Zeb who looked like something had pulled him back.

“Karabast!”

“Sorry!” Sabine said, she tried to stand but Ezra was too entangled with her to do so. Suddenly she was _very_ aware that if it had been anyone other than Zeb was at the door she would have been defenseless.

Zeb’s chest was heaving from the near miss. “Kanan, you said something about getting a secret knock?”

Sabine could feel her face fall as she turned to look at Ezra. The kid hadn’t moved, his eyes closed as though he had nodded off. When she looked back she saw that Zeb had followed her gaze and his face was soft.

“Yeah, that would come in _really_ handy for these kinds of missions,” A familiar voice said and Kanan stepped into the room looking over his shoulder.

Sabine stared at Kanan for a full second before she swung her eyes back to Ezra. The kid was still dozing, not noticing the man he said was dead walk into the room telling Zeb to watch the door. It suddenly clicked with her that whatever they had given Ezra had made him believe that Kanan was dead for some reason.

Kanan knelt on her other side, laying a hand on her shoulder, he was oddly stiff as though he was forcing himself to stay upright and focused. “Are you hurt?”

Sabine shook her head. “No, but they gave the kid something-” Kanan’s eyes darkened as they flickered over to Ezra for a moment before returning to her, “-and he’s not doing so well.”

Kanan sighed, looking rather hurt, staring her in the eye like he was about to apologize about how long it took to find them.

“He said you were dead,” Sabine told him before he could say anything and Kanan froze. Kanan had a strange look on his face as he reached out and laid a hand on Ezra’s neck as though feeling for a pulse.

The kid finally stirred, blinking at Kanan in confusion. “…Kanan?”

Kanan sagged a little with a laugh of giddy relief. “Yeah, kid, I’m here.”

Ezra seemed to half curl away from Sabine so he could get as close as Kanan as he could and still be cuddling with her at the same time. Sabine gave a noise of protest as Ezra did so prompting a soft smile out of Kanan.

“Come on, let’s get you two home.”

* * *

 

Ezra woke up feeling…fuzzy. Or maybe echo-y? Like he was at the bottom of a very deep hole and he could still hear but every sound was distant and lingered for too long until they blended into each other.

Ezra opened his eyes to see that he had fallen asleep on the floor in the common area, and even that felt wrong. It was likeeverything was close enough to see but just out of reach. Still whatever he was using as a pillow was way more comfortable than Chopper. Ezra rolled over and suddenly saw _exactly_ what he was using as a pillow.

Sabine looked down at him. “Ezra, you lucid?”

Oh, _that_ was a trap if ever he heard one. Ezra frantically strained but the last thing he remembered clearly was a poster for some kind of soda…or was it a billboard? Either way it was no help as to _how_ he ended up using Sabine as pillow. Let alone _Sabine’s lap._

Sabine had a vaguely amused look on her face as she waited for Ezra to say something that would make her want to kill him.

“…I…don’t think so?”  

Sabine gave a relieved smile and turned her head toward the door. “Kanan, he’s awake!”

Ezra didn’t have a chance to figure out why she was getting the older Jedi before Kanan was kneeling beside him. He laid a hand on Ezra’s forehead like he was checking for a fever. “Hey, kid, how you do you feel?”

Ezra thought about how to describe what he was feeling but wasn’t sure if anyone else would get it. “Is this what it’s like to have a hangover?”

Kanan opened to mouth to say something when what Ezra said caught up with him. “Wait, you’ve _never_ had a hangover?”

“No, I’ve always stopped when crawling becomes fun.”

Sabine giggled when Kanan covered his eyes with hand before looking back at the teen. “Not important. Ezra, this _is_ important, do you still feel cut off?”

“I feel…disconnected? Like everything’s too…far away?” Ezra looked back at Kanan. “What’s wrong with me?”

Kanan rested a hand on Ezra’s shoulder making him feel a bit more…grounded. “You’re recovering from shock. The bounty hunters gave you a Force suppresser, only they didn’t use it correctly. For one thing, you’re supposed to out cold when it starts working; keeps you from panicking while you’re slowly being cut off from the Force. For another it was expired.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Kid, expired medicine can have all sorts of weird effects.” Sabine explained, then tilted her head to the side, laying her hand on his shoulder. “Would explain why you’re purple.”

“I’m WHAT?!” Ezra would have bolted upright if Sabine and Kanan weren’t holding him down and he stared at horror at his hands…his perfectly… _normal_ hands…

He could hear her and Kanan laughing.

“Very funny. Hey _why_ am I in Sabine’s lap anyway? N-not that I’m complaining or anything-!”

“Uh, Ezra,” Sabine said with a raised eyebrow. “You wouldn’t let me go.”

“Should have seen us try to get off their ship. You tried to cling to ALL of us but you WOULD _not_ let Sabine go.”

Ezra fought down a blush. “Well that sounds like it was _fun,”_ Ezra shrugged their hands off and went to stand up, _“_ but since I’m feeling better I’m just going-”

Everything lost its vibrancy and somehow became flatter.

There were hands on his shoulders pushing and pulling him down until his head was back in Sabine’s lap.

“Whoa.”

“OR” Sabine said with a hint of steel, “you can stay put until you can sit up without turning several shades of gray.”

“That, sounds good,” Ezra moaned still disoriented.

“Yeah, especially since that was like 50 shades,” Zeb joked, leaning against the door jamb.

Ezra looked at Kanan but the Jedi shrugged, he didn’t know either.

“Zeb, when I can get up, you are a dead Lasat.” Sabine promised her face completely red.

Zeb gave a deep chuckle. “In that case: Kid, take all the time you need.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And I thought Hera's chapter was long...


	4. Zeb: Heat Tracker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Because sometimes a stuffed toy is not availble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't hold any legal rights to the Star Wars Universe. I hold only the copyright to this fanfic.

When the crew finally figured out that Ezra was a cuddler it was during the coda for a successful mission. It also let them have a good laugh at Zeb; Chopper was especially merciless to the Lasat. And to think that they had the _Empire_ to thank for it.

* * *

 

Kanan frowned as he looked down from the cockpit down at the Storm Troopers swarming the dock. “Are you sure you can’t release the locks?”

Hera was calmly frantic, Chopper helping her try to slice the computer without being obvious about it. “Not unless we want even more attention.”

“Weadon,” one of Imperal Officers called through the dock speakers. “ _Please lower the ramp and prepare to be searched.”_

Hera and Kanan looked at each other, his eyes slid over to Chopper and nodded. Hera pressed the intercom. “Standby, Officer, my first will meet you in the cargo bay.”

Kanan turned, a quick hand on her shoulder to share strength, and walked through the ship. Zeb, Ezra and Sabine looked up from their Dejarik game. “Kanan, what’s going on?”

“The Empire’s searching the ship. I need everyone in the cargo bay. Do _Not_ try anything.” Kanan said leading them to there. The three stood against the wall with their arms crossed and Kanan hit the button, slowly lowering the ramp. He was a little surprised that the Stormtroopers did not live up to their name and storm the _Ghost_ instead watching as an Imperial officer boarded with a few techs.

“What’s the matter officer?” Kanan asked doing his best to come across as a confused independent star-hopper.

“No need for alarm; this is just a routine search in order to maintain a free trade enterprise.” The Imperial officer assured, seemingly unaware of the oxymoron that sentence was to the crew.

Hera walked past Kanan, handing the officer flimsy’s with their “data” and “travel logs”, Chopper squawking that he had ones going back father if the Empire wanted.

Kanan’s eyes met hers while the Imp flipped through the forged documents. _I thought you were staying in the cockpit with Chopper._

_Well, Love, you thought wrong; this is my ship after all._

“I see you’ve been to Lothal recently,” The officer noted.

“We do a lot of business there,” Hera admitted lightly.

“Is that a problem?” Kanan asked with just the right amount of respect.

“No, but unfortunately there have been reports of Loth-rats getting on cargo ships such as yours and spreading to other planets. I’m afraid we’re going to have to search you ship more thoroughly in case there’s an infestation.”

“Found one!” Zeb joked slamming a hand into Ezra’s back causing the teen to stumble.

The Imperial officer looked at the teen with surprise and interest. “You’re from Lothal?”

Ezra frowned. “Yeah, what of it?”

“How long have you served on this ship?” The officer asked.

“He’s been here for, what is it, Boss? Three years?” Zeb lied, looking at Kanan with an apology in his eyes.

“Almost four,” Kanan answered lightly.

“Well before the law passed, anyway,” Ezra added with a shrug.

“What does my crew’s history have to do with anything?” Hera asked, tilting her head to make it seem like she didn’t have an inkling of what the Imp was after.

The officer went back to flipping through the records. “Forgive me, but there have also been reports coming from Lothal-”

“Is this about those rebels?” Sabine asked with annoyance, causing the crew to groan.

“Karabast,” Zeb moaned with an eye roll. “Those guys have been causing people like us nothin’ but trouble.”

Chopper grumbled an agreement waving his arms to make a point.

Kanan nodded. “Ya said it. Do you know how hard it is to get any kind of job there now?”

“I’ll bet,” the officer noted with sympathy. “Well your paper work checks out but I’m afraid that the size of your ship means that we’ll have to search all night just to be sure.”

Hera and Kanan glanced at each other, her eyes narrowed while he took a deep breath.

“We understand sir.” Hera said tightly. “You do what you have to do.”

“Don’t worry,” The officer soothed, misinterpreting the aggression. “The Empire will provide you with a hotel room for the night.”

* * *

 

“Well he did say ‘ _A’_ hotel room,” Sabine shrugged, picking her way to the farthest bed. It was a standard size room though a little on the small size with two queen sized beds and a roll away single crammed in making the room feel even more crowded. It wasn’t worth unpacking the bags that everyone had hastily gathered before being kicked off their own ship for one night, so the presence of five packs tossed on the floor next to beds added to the claustrophobic feel of the room.

“Yeah, I was expecting something like this,” Kanan sighed.

“At least we finished the job before they showed up,” Hera noted watching Chopper wheel around the room as much as he could. The droid approached the rollway squawking in distress trying to shove it aside.

“Whoa, whoa, what’s wrong?”

Chopper pointed to the power station behind the bed and whined.

“Pipe down ya rust bucket, we’ll move it for ya.” Zeb promised.

“Alright, so Sabine and I will take that bed, Zeb and Ezra will take the other one and Kanan will take the rollaway.”

“What!? Oh, come on!” Zeb protested. “It’s bad enough that I have to share a room with him-”

“Seriously, Hera? He smells bad enough as it is-”

She pinned the two with a look; the boys deflated giving each other a resentful glance.

Kanan laughed. “Relax you two; it’s only for one night.”

“So why don’t you trade with one of us?” Ezra asked.

“No one is trading with anyone.” Hera said sitting down next to Sabine.

Sabine looked up from her sketchbook, her eyes narrowed at Hera. “What exactly do you have planned?”

“For us to spend the night here and get to the _Ghost_ first thing in the morning,” Hera replied, watching as Zeb and Ezra hissed threats and ultimatums at each other.

“I meant: what’s the reason for the sleeping arrangements?”

“Why, did you want to sleep with Ezra again?”

“Deal!”

“No!” Sabine snapped causing Ezra to pout and getting a huge laugh out of Zeb. Sabine leveled a skeptical look at Hera. The pilot rolled her eyes, looking at Kanan. The Jedi gave her a playful smile and a shrug.

“Sabine,” Hera said, throwing Kanan a look that said _you are no help_. “Don’t worry about it.”

* * *

 

Zeb woke up, aware that something was wrong. Right off the bat he could tell that this wasn’t his bunk but the events of the day came back to him enough to put him at ease. It was the thing that was wrapped around him that put the Lasat on edge. Carefully, he shifted so he could figure out what it was. Ezra gave a sleepy groan until Zeb stopped moving and the teen resettled against the Lasat’s side. Zeb huffed, pushing away from Ezra to put some distance between them. He closed his eyes ready to go back to sleep when Ezra was once again clinging to Zeb.

“Karabast,” Zeb hissed, moving away again. He just started to doze off when Ezra rolled closer. Zeb rolled over again, putting a pillow between the two, satisfied that he put an end to this. He wasn’t sure how long he slept for but he started when Ezra somehow rolled over the pillow and curled against Zeb again. He sighed, trying to put more space between them until he realized that he had reached the edge of the bed and tried to pull his weight back onto the mattress. For a moment it seemed like Zeb had managed to stabilize himself and then he fell on top of the bags.

“Ow, what the blasted hell does this kid have in here?” Zeb moaned certain he was going to have a bruise from whatever metal poky thing was in there. “Fine, if he wants my side…” Zeb went around the bed, lying down happy that he now had a much distance as possible between them. He had barely settled in when Ezra rolled back over, snuggling into the Lasat’s side. “OH, _come on!”_

Chopper gave an electronic laugh and Sabine sat up slightly, probably giving him a glare in the dark. “Zeb, knock it off!”

“I would if the kid would stop fracking crowding me!” Zeb hissed, shoving Ezra, who was _still_ asleep, away.

“Zeb, you’re a big boy, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re making is sound,” Hera whispered, not moving.

“You don’t understand: he won’t stop!” Zeb explained even as Ezra crept closer.

“Well, Zeb,” Sabine whispered, lying back down, “if worse comes to worse you can always sleep in the bathtub.”

“Please, I’m not _that_ desperate.”

* * *

 

Kanan had carefully snuck back into the hotel to avoid any of the staff, going as far as to open the door to their hotel room from the inside to avoid the computer seeing a keycard being used at this hour. The room was still dark but he could sense Hera get up and carefully make her way over to him.

“How’d it go?” She whispered.

“We’re good, Sabine’s room was a bit of a chall-Enn-Gin” he said through a yawn, “One that I’ll tell you in the morning.”

“Good,” he could hear her smile in her voice, “get some sleep.”

He gently grabbed her shoulders and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Thank you.”

He pulled off his boots, dropping gratefully onto the rollaway. Hera stepped into the fresher, flipping on the light and flooding the main hotel room with weak light.

“ _Karabast!”_

Hera gave a startled cry, Kanan leapt off the rollway and swung into the fresher. Zeb laid in the bathtub, his hand raised to block the light, which was near eye hurting in the fresher. Hera had a hand over her heart, leaning against the sink. “Zeb, what are you doing?” She demanded.

“I _was_ sleeping.”

“ _Why_ were you sleeping in the bathtub?” Kanan asked, completely confused.

“Because,” Zeb growled, “ _Your_ Padawan is a heat tracker!”

Hera gave a Kanan an amused look, Chopper’s maniacal laughter in the background.

“Why is it when Ezra does something no one-” Kanan threw up his hands. “I’m going to bed.”

* * *

 

As soon as they got back to the ship Hera took off putting some distance between them and the bucket heads.

The _Ghost_ looked decent for the Empire rooting around it overnight, Sabine mused. Yes, the nonessentials were scattered about but knowing how through the Empire could be when it wanted it could have been _far_ worse.

“Hey, Sabine, can we talk?” Hera asked.

“Uh, are you sure you want too? I mean we should get the ship back in order,” Sabine gestured to her ear casually by twirling her hair, confident that Hera would know what she really meant.

“We don’t have to worry about bugs,” Hera said sitting at the Dejarik table.

Sabine sat next to Hera. “What makes you so sure?”

“Because I had Chopper scan the ship for any before take-off,” Hera gave the younger woman a fond smile. “ _And_ you were right to wonder about the sleeping arrangement. I didn’t just set it up like that to accidently make Zeb sleep in the tub. I gave Kanan the rollaway so that he could sneak out and keep an eye on the Troopers and make sure they didn’t find anything we didn’t want them too. We wanted to make sure that none of you knew so if we were questioned before we left you could honestly have no idea what they were talking about.”

“Why are you telling me this?” Sabine asked.

“Because, I told you that I would tell you what I can and it’s safe for you to know now. And I want you to know that I won’t leave you in the dark if I don’t have to.”

Sabine smiled. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Hera straightened a little. “Oh, and Kanan said that you might want to hide your explosives a little better. It apparently took him a _lot_ effort to make all those bucket heads over look your room.”

“I wasn’t expecting to be boarded!”

“I know, but just be a little more careful.”

“Is that why Kanan’s taking a nap?”

Hera tilted her head to the side. “Hm, that and pulling an all-nighter; finding Zeb in the tub didn’t help.”

Sabine’s smile turned mischievous. “He really slept in the bathtub?”

“Scared me half to death,” Hera confirmed with a laugh as Chopper rolled in the room.

“I did NOT!” Ezra cried.

“Oh, yes you DID!” Zeb shot back.

“ _You’re_ just embarrassed that you fell out of bed! How could I possibly shove you off when you weigh more than the _Ghost?_ ”

“I do NOT and you DID!” Zeb stomped into the common room. “Chopper, show him!”

Chopper ‘hmmed’ and displayed a holo of Zeb asleep in the tub; Ezra snickered as Zeb bristled. “That’s not what I meant! Come on, you’ve got to have proof of Ezra being a cuddlier!”

“I am NOT!”

Chopper gave a few buzzes and moans, waving his arms to make his point. Zeb whipped his attention to Hera and Sabine.

“He said,” Hera translated, “‘Sorry but I don’t have anything like that.’”

Sabine smiled into her cup, knowing what Hera had left out.

“So you have a holo of me sleeping in a tub but NOT of the kid being heat tracker?!” Zeb snarled.

Chopper gave a buzz that sounded like a sarcastic ‘sorry’ and gave his kind of shrug.

Zeb stomped off muttering under his breath. Ezra leaned against the table, still chuckling at the Lasat. “Can you believe him?”

“Yeah,” Hera said, giving Sabine a mischievous look, “It is too bad Chopper didn’t manage to get a holo of it.”

Ezra looked back with confusion and Sabine put a hand on Hera’s shoulder. “Not Chopper’s fault that he missed that holo-op, bad angle and all. But we’ll probably get another chance of getting proof of the kid being a cuddlier.”

Sabine and Hera held back their laughter as Ezra tried to figure out if they were serious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Confession: Zeb's Chapter was the second one I wrote for this story. However I knew Sabine's chapter was going to be heavy so I figured I would follow it up with pure fluff.


	5. Kanan: Belonging

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to the Star Wars Universe. I hold only the copyright to this fanfic

Everyone hated what Kanan called “siege missions” the ones in which they counted how long they’d been awake by days not hours. The last siege mission the _Ghost_ took was the first time Ezra had done one, at first the kid had been gung-ho about the idea, though in a way that only teenagers could pull off by pretending they weren’t excited. The rest of the crew traded grins at that, looking forward to kid getting a _giant_ dose of reality. For about the first three days the kid was fine if a little short by day two, but everyone was, except Chopper for obvious reasons. By the middle day four they had to repeat orders to him because he seemed too out of it to remember, that had put Zeb on edge to the point that they had to be separated. So it was a relief that by the end of day five (it was five was right? Maybe just starting on six?) when Hera and Kanan ordered everyone to bed after parking on a moon with no air.

* * *

 

Hera hated her comm at this very moment.

Why? Why the damn thing going off?

“Unless this is an emergency-”

Chopper was squawking that _Yes, yes this is an emergency_ and something about Ezra in the cargo bay and was acting weird and out of it and _get here NOW!_

“Okay, okay, I’m on my way!” Hera promised and she pulled her hat back on and shoved her feet into her boots with practiced speed and ease.

Kanan opened the door to his room the same time she left hers and he gave her a look while rubbing sleep out of his eye. “Chopper call you, too?”

“If this turns out to be a prank I’m pulling his battery,” Hera swore as she stomped down the hall and climbed into the cargo bay.

Ezra was standing there, swaying on his feet slightly as Chopper buzzed angrily at him.

“Okay, what is going?” Hera demanded, Kanan sliding down the ladder after her.

Chopper whirled around chattering so quickly that Hera barely caught every other word and she was in no mood. “Chop, slow down!”

Chopper gave his version of a deep breath and explained that he had caught the kid about to space himself.

“Whoa, What?” Kanan turned to Ezra, grabbing the kid by the shoulders. “What were you doing?”

“I t-trying to…my tower…” Ezra put a hand to his forehead, stumbling slightly. “I left it in my tower.”

“Left what in your tower?” Kanan demanded.

“…I, don’t. I don’t know.”

Kanan shook the kid a little. “Okay, whatever it was, it is _not_ worth killing yourself over.”

“Just a couple of minutes then I’d be right back.” Ezra said in an almost breathless way.

Something about the way Ezra was talking made it click with Hera where Ezra thought he was.

“Ezra,” Hera said, “We’re not on Lothal.”

Ezra blinked owlishly. “What?”

“Ezra, we’re on a moon light-years away from your tower. There is _no_ air outside,” Hera tried again, stressing how important the fact was.

Ezra stared at her in complete confusion.

Kanan frowned and placed two fingers against Ezra’s neck. “His pulse is thread-y and I think he has a bit of a fever.”

“Imma okay, Imma okay,” Ezra assured, though he would have fallen if Kanan wasn’t holding him upright. “I can, I can still…”

“Ezra, you need sleep,” Hera said.

“I, I just need another stim that’s all,” Ezra protested oblivious to the shock that he’d given the other three.

“Stimulants? How many have you had?” Kanan demanded, echoing Chopper’s buzz. Ezra didn’t answer, staring at something off to the side.

“Ezra,” Hera coxed, “how many stims did you use?”

“From, from the first aid box.”

Kanan gave Chopper a look, the droid chirping that there was, _were_ , eight in there.

Hera scrambled up the ladder, grabbing the box and yanking it open. “Frang,” she turned her attention back to the cargo bay. “There’s only two left.”

She couldn’t make out what they were saying until Kanan appeared at the bottom of the ladder, “Three, the kid had one on him.”

He tossed it up to her, she assumed he used the Force a bit to keep it on target and give it altitude. She placed it back in the box listening as Kanan coached Ezra through climbing the ladder. Hera waited at the top watching the two climb with Kanan practically on top of the kid to prevent him from falling. As soon as Ezra was close enough she grabbed him and pulled him up the rest of the way. Ezra stumbled again, nearly running into the wall before Hera managed to steady him.

“I’ll take him to my room,” Kanan said once he was on the deck, “make sure he sleeps.”

“The mission,” Ezra muttered. “We c-can’t, I can still…”

“Kid, the mission’s over,” Kanan snapped.

“No, no, we can still do it, we can finish, I’m fine, Imma okay.” Even as he said it Ezra listed to the side.

Hera shook her head. “He’s completely out of it.” Inspiration struck her. “But you’re right, Ezra, we need to finish the mission. Ezra, Ezra, look at me, I need you to help Kanan and do Exactly as he says. Can you do that?”

Ezra gave a halting nod, allowing Kanan to herd the kid to his quarters.

Hera turned back to the ladder. “Chopper, you’re a life saver.”

Chopper hummed a response that she didn’t need to translate to understand it meant “ _I know_!”

* * *

 

It took some coaxing but Kanan managed to convince Ezra to take off his boots but the kid refused to lie down.

“K-Kanan, I can’t,” Ezra protested, shaking his head. “I-I-I’ll fall asleep if I do.”

“It’s only for a little bit,” Kanan tried, his own exhaustion making it hard not to snap at the kid again.

“I don’t feel s’good,” Ezra admitted, holding his head.

“I know, kid, I know. Just sit down,” Kanan tried not to cheer as Ezra gave another halting nod and sat on the bunk resting his head on the wall. “Do you think you might throw up?”

Ezra just stared at Kanan, blinking sluggishly.

“I’ll be right back,” Kanan stepped out of his room, Hera was still in the common room looking surprised to see him. “Hera, could you get me a bucket? Kid’s not looking too good.”

She nodded disappearing from sight for a moment before coming back with an old caff bucket that they normally kept the cleaning supplies in. Kanan took with a nod of thanks when the door behind him opened and a very confused Ezra stood there looking at the two.

“Kanan, what was I doing?”

Kanan gave an exasperated sigh. “You were waiting for me. I left to get something.”

Ezra nodded again falling forward slightly so that he was resting his head against Kanan’s chest. Before Kanan could react, Ezra pulled back so quickly that he nearly fell on his ass until Kanan grabbed his arms.

“Sorry, sorry, Imma okay, Imma okay.” Ezra said, “I just, I-I think I drifted for a sec. But I’m, I’m good, I’m good.”

“Kid-”

Hera stopped him, with a hand on his shoulder. “You might want to save the lecture until Ezra can understand what you’re saying, Love.”

Kanan looked back at Ezra, who, frankly, was impressing the Jedi with how the kid was even still standing and even vaguely coherent, and decided that Hera was right. “Come on, kid.”

Ezra could barely walk back to the bed; the kid probably would have fallen if Kanan hadn’t kept a hand on his arm. Ezra practically collapsed onto the bed, though not lying down because that would make Kanan’s job far too easy. The kid buried his head in his hands, desperately scrubbing his face as though to wipe away the exhaustion. Kanan sat down next his Padawan, his own tired mind trying to place the blame on Kanan for not noticing that the kid had been going _literally_ non-stop. There had to be some way to get the kid to lay dow-

Kanan rolled his eyes, wishing he had thought of this sooner. As quick as lighting he wrapped his arms around Ezra, the move pinned the kid’s arms to his sides. With a twist Kanan pulled Ezra on the bunk and laid down so he was between the kid and the door. Ezra struggled weakly, trying to pry Kanan’s arms off of him, muttering incomplete protests.

“Shh, it’s okay, kid.”

Kanan kept him pinned and Ezra’s struggles slowly stopped as his breathing evened out. Kanan started counting, figuring that when he reached a hundred it would be safe to let the kid sleep in the bottom bunk and Kanan would take the top one.

He never made it to 33.

* * *

 

Zeb yawned so hard his jaw popped as he shuffled to the ‘fresher. Chopper rolled by buzzing a quiet greeting. “Chopper, the next time Kanan decides we should do another siege mission remind me to punch him.”

Chopper buzzed and Zeb figured that it was a whole hearted agreement. The ‘fresher was occupied, which prompted a quiet “Karabast”, until Sabine stepped out. The two barely nodded at each other as they traded places. By the time Zeb came back out Sabine was half way through a bowl of protein. Zeb joined her and they ate with compatible silence, the unspoken understanding that as soon as they were done they were both going back to sleep. Chopper wheeled over and started poking Zeb in the thigh.

“Karabast, I’m not in the mood to deal with you.” Zeb growled pushing the droid away with his foot.

Chopper wheedled something and Zeb looked at Sabine for a translation. “He says that there’s something that you’ll want to see.”

Zeb’s ears drooped as he looked back at the droid. “If I go, will you leave me alone until I’m awake?”

Chopper chirped an affirmative.

Zeb rolled his head and followed the droid. Zeb jolted when Chopper wheeled into Kanan’s room. “Wait! What are you doing?”

Chopper shushed him, gleefully pointing at the bed. Wary that he was being set up as the fall man for a prank, Zeb edged closer to the bunk. Kanan was laying on his side with his arm around Ezra, the two of them fast asleep. Zeb could feel his face split into a giant grin as Chopper quietly buzzed something.

“He said,” Sabine whispered, causing Zeb to jump since he hadn’t realized she followed them, “that he can’t get a good angle to get a holo.”

Zeb reached down, grabbing the droid and holding him up. There was a blue light at the droid scanned the two and chirped that he got a good one.

“I want a copy!” Sabine whispered with a mischievous smile, walking over and gathering up the blanket that had fallen off the bed. Kanan stirred causing the three to freeze as they watched the Jedi roll over onto his back. Before they could relax Ezra also shifted, snuggling against Kanan’s side and used the older man’s chest as a pillow. The three held their breaths but the two didn’t stir again. Zeb gave a relieved chuckle then grinned.

“One more, Chop!”

There was another scan of blue light with a chirp that even Zeb could tell meant “ _Got it!”_ Sabine hastily tossed the blanket over Kanan and Ezra and the three fled the room.

* * *

 

Ezra hadn’t felt like this in a long time.

Just safe and warm and protected.

He pressed into the warm thing that he was lying next to and felt it shift. Where was he? His tower was never this comfortable, either too hot in the summer or too cold in the winter and flat out terrifying in the tornado seasons. For a wild moment Ezra thought that maybe the last eight years were a dream since the last time Ezra had felt like this his parents had been alive.

Ezra blinked his eyes open seeing that he was pressed up against something green. Confused he tried to see what it was connected to and realized that it was his teacher’s shirt. And that he was snuggling with Kanan.

Ezra blinked.

Then the realization that he was _snuggling_ with _Kanan_ hit the Padawan in full force. Ezra bolted upright, whacking his head against the top bunk, looking around in panic before he realized he was in Kanan’s room.

Kanan jumped, woken up by Ezra’s antics and the Jedi sleepily tried to grab the teen. “Shh, it’s okay kid. You’re okay.”

Ezra frantically tried to figure out how he ended up in Kanan’s bed, his first instinct was that Zeb was somehow responsible for it. Ezra glanced down and saw that the two were wearing what they normally wore everyday minus their boots and as though they just dropped off to sleep by accident, though the dislodged blanket said otherwise. Ezra frowned as he tried to remember the last couple of days and what happened to-

“The mission!”

“Mission’s over, kid.” Kanan said, his eyes still closed.

“Did we finish or did we abandon it?”

“Finished.”

Ezra sighed in relief. “How many credits did we get?”

Kanan squinted at Ezra and then sat up. “Oh, you’re actually awake!”

“Was I not before?”

“No, no, you were _not_ ,” Kanan scrubbed at his eye. “And that’s something we’re going to have to talk about.”

“Yeah, missions with no sleep _suck_.”

“I was talking about the stimulants.” Kanan said seriously.

“Yeah, sorry, you can take it out of my share to replace them.”

“I meant,” Kanan said, looking Ezra right in the eye, “What made you decide that was a good idea?”

“Sorry, I didn’t know where you guys had the stash of stimulants for stuff like this so I had to use the ones from the first aid box.”

Something about what Ezra said caused Kanan’s face to soften. “Kid,” Kanan shook his head with sigh, “we weren’t staying up the whole time.”

Ezra frowned. “But I thought-”

“Kid, _no one_ can stay awake and functional for that long. The rest of us have been taking naps in shifts about every four hours. Even _Chopper_ stopped for a recharge.”

Ezra thought back and realized that there were times that he didn’t see someone but he had just assumed that they were doing something else. “Oh. So, I was the idiot that stayed up for,” Ezra thought back but he couldn’t tell the days apart, “a week?”

“Pretty much, and if you do this again Chopper might not stop you the next time you try to space yourself.”

Ezra started. “I did what?”

“Well, as soon as the mission ended we parked on the biggest rock we could find to sleep and you tried to walk back to Lothal.”

Ezra hung his head, he honestly couldn’t remember that. “…Thank you for stopping me?”

“I wasn’t kidding. You actually have Chopper to thank for that.”

Ezra sighed. “Might have been better off spacing myself.”

“Eh, it’s not that bad.”

Ezra leveled a look at the Jedi.

Kanan smirked and gave a shrug. “I’d open with slave for a day; start low. Knowing Chop, he’ll go for a month and if you negotiate well you might get away with a week, maybe two.”

“Thanks.” Ezra snarked.

“Don’t mention it.”

Ezra shifted, sure that at any moment that Kanan was going to kick him out of the room and into his own bed. Not that Ezra would have blamed him: he could already feel sleep tugging at his eyes again. Besides who’d want to be stuck with the Padawan after realizing how much of a little kid he’d been acting like. Come on, who in their right mind over the age of six and not drunk _snuggles_ with someone?

But if he were to be honest he had…liked it. Like when he had been stuck with Hera in that ice storm with only one blanket and pretended for a moment that Hera was his mom; he couldn’t quite look her in the eye when he almost called her that. And this time he had been almost convinced that Kanan was his dad.

“Ezra?”

Ezra started realizing that he was starting to drift again using Kanan’s shoulder as a pillow. “Sorry.”

“Kid…”Ezra could feel Kanan’s eyes on him, trying very hard not look at his teacher’s expression but his curiosity was making it very hard. “Are you hungry?”

Ezra nodded taking the out that Kanan offered him. Ezra tried to remember where he left his boots and only found them because Kanan tripped over them. The _Ghost_ was still dark, though that could have just been that they had slept through ship’s day. They stopped in the Galley for just long enough to grab a few prepackaged bars before heading back to the Common area. Ezra ate slowly, propping his head up on his fist, he was hungrier than he realized but he was still more tired than hungry.

* * *

 

Something shifted and Ezra jerked awake looking up to see an equally sleepy Kanan and an amused Hera. Ezra sat up before it clicked that he had been using Kanan as a pillow. _Again._ “Karabast, sorry-”

“What are you sorry for?” Kanan asked his voice rusty from sleep as he looked around as though he couldn’t remember how he got to the common room. “Falling asleep? ‘Cause I drifted too, just now.”

“No, for, um, for, you know…” Ezra racked his brain to explain without using the words cuddle, snuggle, or some variation thereof.

“For providing a good holo-op?” Hera teased with a sly grin holding up the recorder.

Ezra groaned, burying his hands in his hair hoping to the First Light that Zeb never saw whatever holo Hera just took. “Yeah?”

Hera looked startled and a little hurt at that and Kanan frowned at the Padawan.

“Kid,” Kanan said, studying the teen, “are you really apologizing for being a cuddler?”

“No, I mean, sort of, well I mean it’s just so stupid and I mean I like you, but not like that way but I’m still invading your personal space and I never did this while I was on the streets-”

“Whoa, whoa, slow down.” Hera dropped onto Ezra’s other side, gently rubbing a soothing pattern on his shoulder. Ezra tried not to lean into the touch aware that he was on thin ice.

“Look,” Ezra crossed him arms and slumped in his seat, effectively blocking Hera’s hand. “I just don’t understand what’s wrong with me today. I don’t normally… _cuddle_ ,” he said the last word like it left a bad taste in his mouth.

Kanan gave a bemused look. “Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Oh, yes, you do,” Hera agreed with amusement. “You just don’t notice since you don’t share a bed too often.”

Ezra gave her a glare. “What makes you say that?”

“Let’s see,” Kanan smirked as he held up a hand, ticking off examples, “When’re cold you don’t mind sharing a blanket-”

“-That was an emergency!”

“-when you’ve been drugged you get _very_ clingy, you are one of the biggest snuggle drunks I have ever met, and that is saying something; I used to know a lot of drunks. And when you are just plain asleep you become a heat tracker so persistent that you managed to push Zeb out of bed once.”

“I still don’t see how that’s possible; I mean he weighs more than the _Phantom_!” Ezra sulked.

“Me either, but you did,” Kanan turned serious. “Why does this bother you so much?”

Ezra took a deep breath unable to look at them. “I’m just…not a little kid…”

“Does it make you feel uncomfortable?” Hera asked.

“No! It makes me feel-” Ezra bit his lip, pulling his arms tighter around himself, whispering the confession, “… it makes me feel safe.”

“Ezra…” Hera sighed, prompting Ezra to cut off whatever reprimand she was going to give him.

“Look you don’t have to tell that it’s stupid! I mean, we’re rebelling against the Empire and we get into fights with them all the time. Not to mention how often our missions go wrong and-”

Hera’s arms were around him holding him close. After a moment he felt Kanan’s hand on his back, slowly drawing mindless patterns. “Ezra,” Hera soothed, “It’s alright to want to feel safe.”

Ezra couldn’t help but relax, lack of sleep and the comfort of the hug and Kanan’s patterns made it hard to resist. “But we’re not.”

Kanan’s hand stopped. “Ezra, it’s because we’re in danger so often that when you do feel safe you shouldn’t push it away.”

“But…” Ezra wished he was more awake, he couldn’t think straight.

“I promise I don’t think any less of you for it.”

At Kanan’s reassurance Ezra relaxed fully letting the Jedi pull him out of Hera’s hug and into one of his own. Hera shifted and Ezra was sandwiched between the two, like when he was a little kid and slept in his parents’ bed for the night.

Ezra wasn’t sure when he drifted but he was pulled back to the real world when there was a thing of light that passed over him. He didn’t want to move or even open his eyes to find out what it was though.

“Sabine,” Hera said, “if I find this painted _anywhere_ on my ship I will power wash the entire _Ghost_ ; Starting with your room.”

“Aw, and this was going to be a good one!”

Ezra smiled at that and let himself fall back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This entire fanfic was born after I noticed that when Ezra is feeling defensive or unsure of himself he tends to cross his arms like he's trying to give himself a hug. It got me thinking that maybe he would have been a very physically affectionate guy if he hadn't been left on the street for 8 years. But some habits never truly go away. Thank you for reading!

**Author's Note:**

> Is it underage drinking when the legal age on the planet is younger? I couldn't decide if I should put the tag on or not.
> 
> Also a Jedi Mind Trick is a real drink.
> 
> Edit: After a lot of thought I changed the title when I realized that it didn't match the rest of the tone of the story. Sorry for any confusion.


End file.
